| dc.description.abstract | Previous research has shown that the absence of social support and the receiving of negative social interactions are associated with lowered health related quality of life. The absence of social support and the receiving of negative social interactions are similar to the experience of invalidation, which covers both discounting and lack of understanding. The goal of the present study was to examine invalidation for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hypothesized was that patients with COPD would experience more invalidation than patients with asthma. Also hypothesized was that experiencing more invalidation would be associated with lower health related quality of life. Specifically, it was hypothesized that self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation would mediate the relation between invalidation and health related quality of life. Participants were 95 patients with asthma and 159 patients with COPD. Four questionnaires were completed by the participants to measure invalidation, health related quality of life, self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation. These questionnaires consisted respectively of the Illness Invalidation Inventory, the RAND-36 item Health Survey, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. Results showed that patients with COPD did not experience more invalidation than patients with asthma. The experience of invalidation was mostly related to mental health related quality of life, but only limited to physical health related quality of life. Furthermore, self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation were shown to mediate invalidation and mental health related quality of life in some situations. Future research is needed to replicate these results and should examine the possible causal role of invalidation. | |
